Living in Harmony Community Grants 1999

Queensland

Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Griffith University (Gold Coast Campus)

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All-Media Guide to Fairness and Non-Racism in Reporting

$55,600 Awarded

| Aims | Background | Activities | Outcomes |

Aims

This project, now completed, aimed to:

  • deal with racism in the media against Indigenous peoples

  • assist journalists and journalism students understand the legal responsibilities they face when reporting matters pertaining to race

  • give advice on best practice for building and maintaining broad-based and culturally diverse media readers, viewers and listeners

  • suggest practical solutions to problems that arise in news-gathering in, and reporting to, a diverse community

  • produce an accessible guide to fairness and non-racism in reporting, with the hope it will become a standard text for media students in Australian tertiary institutions

Background

The project:

  • arose from racism in the media against Indigenous peoples being identified as a priority issue in both the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Inquiry into Racist Violence

  • was designed in relation to these reports’ findings that the media in Australia play an unintended but significant role in creating prejudice which maintains intolerance based on race, culture and religion

Activities

The project:

  • conducted a literature search on the relationship between the media, race and racism in Australia, Fair Go for Fair Reporting,and built on this work in the guidebook

  • consulted with the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), editorial training officers in commercial and public news organisation, the Journalism Education Association, Aboriginal elders and representatives from ethnic community organisations

  • consulted with these stakeholders to ensure that the draft of the All Media Guide to Fair and Cross-Cultural Reporting:

    • reflected community standards and industry expectations

    • consisted of high quality and relevant materials

  • included information in the media guide on:

    • background to Indigenous Australia and issues needing thoughtful reporting

    • ethnic communities and different cultural customs

    • effective and sensitive cross-cultural communication – how to "put yourself in the other person’s shoes"

    • finding a wide range of contacts to ensure balanced reporting

    • relevant anti racism and vilification legislation

    • media industry codes of practice

      • MEAA (Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance) code of ethics

    • published the Guide and website http://www.gu.edu.au/school/art/AMMSite/ (needs Adobe Acrobat reader to download from the website)

    • conducted a quantitative survey and qualitative assessment of the guide amongst student users

Outcomes

The project:

  • was launched at the National Journalism Education Conference, introducing it to journalism faculty members from many Australian universities

  • distributed 1,800 copies of the guide widely, to:

    • 400 newsrooms

    • 150 ethnic, indigenous and community organisations

    • 100 journalism students at Newcastle

    • 250 "News and Information Gathering" students at Griffith University

    • 300 journalism educators and students at University of Technology; Sydney, University of Wollongong, and "Styles and Genres of Journalism" classes at Griffith University

    • 200 delegates at the National Journalism Education Conference

    • 80 copies to the ABC for training courses for journalists

  • was evaluated by questionnaires to journalism students at Newcastle and Griffith Universities which found in the quantitative section that students felt that:

    • the guide would be useful in their work in the media industry

    • after reading the guide they felt better prepared to deal with cross-cultural issues in the media

    • the language is simple and conversational and the book itself is short and to the point

  • had feedback from the qualitative assessment of the booklet that it:

    • "helped me to think of issues that otherwise wouldn’t have been considered" (student)

    • "encouraged you to think for yourself and about how you would work in the field" (student)

    • "is important: it asks journalists to question their own pre-conceptions of the world. It offers useful, clear tips for adapting traditional news-gathering techniques (developing contacts, interviewing etc) to the particular customs and behaviours of various ethnic and indigenous communities" (review in Fifth Estate, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)

  • notes that small quantitative change in media portrayal of cross-cultural issues has been reported to the investigators, but expects that the real long term effects will only arise as students exposed to the book begin to move into the media industry

  • was the subject of:

    • an academic paper on the project published in journal eJournalism - www.fifth.estate.rmit.edu.au/March01/indigenous.htm

    • numerous other review articles on the internet

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